IT staffing leaders — at least those filling out SIA’s Pulse Survey — are certainly optimistic about 2022.
In the July Pulse, we asked participants to project their expected 2022 year-over-year change in revenue, hours worked, average pay rate and average bill rate. IT respondents projected 30% median year-over-year revenue growth in 2022, with 36% mean growth. Hours worked are expected to be up 29% year over year, while average pay rate and average bill rate are both expected to be up 10% in 2022.
In addition, a net 44% of firms expect new orders to increase over the next six months, higher than the net 26% seeing an increase in new orders over the last three months.
Whether growth will indeed progress at such a high clip going forward remains to be seen, but when looking back, there was interestingly no drop-off at all from the previous May Pulse. IT staffing revenue growth stayed steady, up a median 20% year over year in the July survey compared to 19% in May. The net percent of firms reporting positive year-over-year growth increased slightly from 66% to 68%.
It is worth noting that Pulse participants tend to be quite bullish and are usually above average performers. Furthermore, the July Pulse looks at June data; any clear decline in numbers is not likely to be seen until July or beyond. Thus, the next (September) Pulse Survey will be key in measuring any second-half drop.
Outside of Pulse, second-quarter earnings releases and earnings calls will give insights into what IT staffing leaders are seeing now. ManpowerGroup’s US Experis revenue (90% of which comprises IT skills) was up 25% organically year over year in the second quarter, and the company expects strong double-digit growth in the second half. ASGN in its second-quarter earnings call noted that “customer IT spend is showing no signs of slowing.”
Financial results and business expectations aside, in the July Pulse we also looked into something else of vital importance: diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
In the survey we asked, “Does your organization have DE&I goals?” A positive insight we gleaned from this question: 67% of IT staffing respondents shared that their company had DE&I goals, the highest among all of the major staffing segments (42% of travel nurse staffing respondents and 37% of industrial staffing respondents had DE&I goals).
For participants who answered yes to that question, we asked, “What steps has your taken to support DE&I goals” and provided a list of possible choices (more than one could be selected).
The most common steps to support DE&I goals among IT staffing respondents were “revising recruiting and hiring practices,” cited 72% of respondents, and “expanding hybrid working conditions and family-friendly policies,” cited by 67%.
Finally, we asked which of the listed DE&I goals was the most effective strategy in supporting DE&I goals (only one could be selected). For IT participants, the most effective strategy was a tie between “monitoring of employee metrics to ensure equality of opportunity at executive/management levels” (18%) and “increasing training and professional development opportunities for female and diverse employees” (18%).
To obtain more of such valuable insights into IT staffing, participate in the September Pulse; keep an eye out for the invite at the beginning of the month, or visit SIA’s Surveys page.
